1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic apparatus and in particular to the display of a through-image by the enlargement and display of a predetermined area including an area containing a face, on the basis of face detection results.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photographic apparatus that performs face detection for the specification of a face area on an image is proposed, such as that of Japanese unexamined patent publication (KOKAI) No. 2005-348181.
In the process of the face detection, a face detector compares continuous-frame images (and in particular, designated partial face images), which vary only slightly. These frame images are called such because they are continuously displayed on the monitor. During that time, the face detector specifies the face area, i.e., it specifies the number of faces, the size of each face, their positions, etc.
When the face area is specified by such face detection, it becomes possible to enlarge and display a through-image corresponding to the area determined to include the face. Then, an image of the enlarged and displayed predetermined area can be captured, as an optimized frame for a portrait, etc.
When enlargement and display is performed, if the variations in the photographic subject image between the before and after enlargement images are large, the comparison of the continuous-frame images for specifying the face area cannot easily be performed using these images.
In such case, information regarding the face area is reset (deleted), and then, it is necessary to newly specify a face area. Therefore, the face detection is aborted during the zoom operation for enlargement and display of the through-image corresponding to the predetermined area. So, the face detection performance deteriorates in before and after enlargement/display.